You no longer need to feel cooped up on your console, only able to talk to friends who happened to purchase the same big, expensive Xbox or PlayStation 5 as you. Discord is adding direct friends and chat integration to Xbox Series X and S consoles, plus watching friends’ streams without loading the app on your phone. It’s getting so easy to use Discord on consoles and PCs that you might as well ignore your Xbox or PS5 friends list altogether.
On Wednesday, Discord declared that users on Xbox Series X/S or Xbox One no longer have to go through a separate app on their phones to connect to their chats on Discord. The online chat service is essentially coupling its friends and servers with Xbox’s default friends list UI.
While you could already join Discord servers through Xbox relatively easily, the update should make the process pretty seamless. A new Discord tab on the Xbox Friends list under the “Happening Now” tab will display all your Discord friends. From there, you can join a server voice channel or call your compatriots through Discord Friends without entering a voice channel. You can also catch your friends if they’re streaming from your console.
Those features should be rolling out to those in the Xbox Insider beta program, though it should come to more players in the coming weeks.
Last month, Sony and Discord shared similar features coming to PlayStation 5. You still need to link your PlayStation account to your Discord, but after that, you need to hit the PlayStation button on your controller and then go to the specific Discord section of the Game Base tab. Previously, the service required transferring your call from your phone app to the Discord integration on PS5.
While Xbox is now far more directly integrated with Discord’s UI than PS5, it effectively comes down to the same point. You no longer have to use any one console’s exclusive voice chat systems. There’s little reason to do so.
Anecdotally, my friends are mostly PC gamers, so I am well acquainted with Discord and all its eccentricities and misfires. It’s still a far more open platform than either Xbox or PS5, and that’s to its benefit. Now, I can play something like Helldivers 2 on my PS5 from my couch while my friends slouch in front of their PC gaming rigs. Folks who play Call of Duty: Warzone across multiple consoles can much more easily link up, no matter what they prefer.
Cross-platform games are more ubiquitous than ever before. Folks who want to play with their friends who own a different console or prefer a PC need a cross-platform voice service, and Discord seems to be the one taking on that role.
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